Please sign if you live in Columbia County, GA, USA, or share otherwise to raise awareness.

This petition is born from a personal story, a story about a dedicated student who has always prioritized her education. My daughter, an exemplary student at Lakeside High School in Columbia County, Georgia, has consistently maintained straight A's since she first started attending Blue Ridge Elementary. She was inducted into multiple honor societies during her middle and high school years and is currently enrolled in the challenging International Baccalaureate (IB) program. Despite completing all her graduation requirements as a junior, she chose to continue attending LHS for her senior year to complete the IB program - such is her commitment to education.

However, following a family weekend trip in which she brought her bookbag with her to study and work on school projects, she neglected to remove from her bag Tums, Zicam, 2x 200mg Motrin, and her rescue inhaler (which she is allowed to have but that we forgot to do paperwork for this year).  The penalty for the first time offense of possession of any OTC medications or prescribed medications is 2 days suspension.  We understand the need for the rule, but it ties the hands of administrators to provide a more just first time offense punishment (e.g. detention) for harmless items such as she had versus the true purpose and target of this rule (e.g. cough syrup, pseudoephedrine) which children will abuse to get high.  The punishment for having a prescribed inhaler without the county form filed is the same as smoking and vaping.  A student can potentially face a penalty as low as a verbal warning for fighting, battery, gang activities, or theft due to those offenses carrying "principal's discretion" wording, but for something like tums, zinc, or ibuprofen the penalty is automatically 2 days suspension, a penalty which now risks undoing her last 7 years of hard work to earn her place in her various honors societies and loss of classroom lecture time.  Not only is this a first offense of this issue, but this is a first offense of any kind in all her 12 years of primary schooling.  She obsessively follows the rules.

We believe that it is time for common sense change; time for the county school board to revise its Student Code of Conduct with a view towards common sense and treating the discipline system as a behavior modifier and less as a punishment system. The recommendation changes the rule to provide different categories for items of true concern (prescription and OTC substance abuse) being separated from lesser offenses with appropriate penalties for each, or that the Principals be afforded the same ability to apply rational, common sense repercussions as they are entrusted with on more serious offenses.

We urge you to join us in calling on the Columbia County School Board to revise their Student Code of Conduct so it better reflects our children’s commitment towards education rather than punishing them unnecessarily. Please sign this petition today!

Please contact your school district representative from the list of CCBoE Members with email addresses: https://www.ccboe.net/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1197232&type=d&pREC_ID=1438919

Proposed updated wording of rule: